Tomatoes potted up

Finally,
 Today saw me finally manage to pot up my tomato plants that were sown on 27 April 2016.
 The *&%$£@ slugs ate the first batch  that were potted up on the 24 April .

 Desperate to make sure none of the seed & potting up compost had any slugs or slug eggs in it I half filled a bucket with nigh on boiling water and gently stirred in the seed growing mix , then left it over night to cool.

Cooked slugs and their eggs for   cold breakfast is not a pleasant sight nor a healthy thought .
 I drained the MM off and left it to dry out a bit on a couple of 1/4 " mesh garden sieve screens .
The resultant leachate/ tea  was strained through a sock and used as a liquid feed on our Rhubarb which is now growing like a Triffid farm .

 Once the seed mix was reasonably dry I sowed new seeds including the last three of the " Big ugly "seeds  that I got from Josh ( who used to frequent the site ) then  put them in the heated UV led lit chest . It didn't take long till the minute toms appeared and another few days for them to be transplantable .
 Meanwhile I purchased a package of Nemaslug nematode slug control  ( two treatments by post six weeks apart for 45 sq yards . Made it up as per the instructions and checked that the soil temp was right then using a new cheap plastic watering can ,  dosed not only the veg & flowerbeds & the lawns but also a three inch thick layers of newly finished MM spread over the green house floor & for the next five weeks I'vee kept it , " growing fit moist " .

This appears to have been a very very good idea for whilst collecting it up , sweeping the floor glasshouse  & potting on with the MM today I saw no evidence of slugs whatsoever , but found plenty of nice baby earth & brandling worms . Hopefully this treating of the MM with the nematodes will have knocked the slugs on the head , under the right conditions it is said that Nemaslug can kill off slugs for up to six weeks  & as said the next installment is due here next week .
  Around the time I sowed the toms I used what would be the Tomato growing tubs as starter tubs to get 15 specimen dahlia's to break out in shoots & perhaps leaf. 
One of these Specimen tuber clusters cost me nearly £ 9.00 ( $14 )& it went rotten in the tub& died 
 
It's been such lousy wet weather her for May & June  that when I took them out of the tubs only a few had issued shoots & leaves the remainder were just on the point of putting out shoots despite having them out in the glasshouse .

So if the wet continues like it has been of late it looks like we will be eating lots & lots of green fried tomatoes and home made chutney .
Either that or we buy some really bananas to place along side the toms & let the gas off the bananas ripen the green toms as we need them & the gas off the toms ripen the bananas

 Tip
Home made fruity sweet tomato green & red tomato chutney  is even better if you add the same weight of both toms  in marrow that's been peeled & diced
 We have recently opened the last but one jar of the above pressure canned tomato chutney , it has matured fantastically and is extremely superior to that which we sampled two weeks after it was made  in July 2014

Hi there, my fave Welsh writer I'm sorry you have had uncooperative weather. Ouch on the Dahlias. $$